For countless millennia the Tower stood, the unconquerable symbol of the Seven and One.

Civilizations across all worlds rose and fell beneath its shadow, and all had their own version of The Story. How one day it had appeared, sending its message of obtainable Dominion wide across Creation.
How the brave and cowardly alike had flocked to take the challenge. The spectacle that followed, the horror, the strands of gold.

For countless millennia it stood, until one day it didn't. The fixture to which society had anchored itself was simply missing, leaving no trace of itself behind except the memories. Life moved on, but always something felt missing.

Two weeks ago, your city crumbled as a giant sinkhole appeared in the middle of it. When the debris was finally cleared it became obvious to all that the collapse was no natural phenomena, for carved into the very walls of the earth a spiral staircase extended far below.

Creatures big and small, scary and harmless poured out from its depths and amongst them also confused and wounded travelers. Though these travelers varied wildly in appearance, wielded strange powers and spoke in strange languages, all shared the same story.
They all claimed that the hole had spoken to them in the voice of a girl, asking them to prove themselves in exchange for their hearts desire.
They had failed, but when you yourself heard the voice in the back of your mind, you thought to yourself: perhaps I could be the one to succeed.

---

Hello! Welcome to this Lord-of-the-Tower inspired CYOA-ish-Game! Knowledge of the previous incarnation is not required, though there might be references scattered throughout as the game is set in the same quasi fantasy world as its predecessor.
The first thing to note is that this will probably be a short game. In part to field-test a set of rules that I and Dogkisser (Of Tower Lord and Fragile Gods fame) have come up with, and in part because the Full-Size CYOA I am already running and Future Plans will eat up all of my time.
That said, who knows, it might go on for longer then I have planned if things go well? Only time will tell.
Anyway, let us get to the good stuff!

I am looking for five-ish players, though if there is a lot of interest I might make room for another one or two. If everyone dies or leaves before the end there might be another wave. We will have to figure this out together!
Rolls will be made using Orokos utilizing the rule-set provided below.

Characters, ("Deepdelvers") much like the ones that appeared in the Lord of the Tower, can be anything from anywhere*, though a fantasy bent is preferred.
That said, the prequel to this game featured characters ("Topseekers") ranging from Sentient Pie, Stickmen, Dogs and horrible amalgamations of flesh.

*The Dungeon appeared in your home town regardless of where that home-town was, destroying much of it. Wherever it is that you entered from, you and everyone else inevitable end up in the same place, but where that is will have to wait for the first official story post.
For simplicities sake, please include what you were doing when the Dungeon appeared and why you decided to enter, despite the apparent danger, in your recruitment post.

---

CHARACTER GENERATION
In order to create a character, give them a name, a picture, a short bio (no more than one or two paragraphs) and a selection of three Powers and three Skills paid for by a budget of twelve d6 dice in total. Every 1d6 invested into a skill or power counts as a rank in that skill or power.
Additionally, add one Talent that represents your own personal unique snowflakeiness.

Skills
Broadly, Skill traits cover your specialties in interacting with the environment - but not attacking your foes. These can be actual skills, like Running, to equipment (like Plate Armor) to anything in between.
When you wish to use a skill, roll your relevant allocated Dicepool against the Environment, Obstacle or Skill Challenge in question.

Powers
Broadly, Power traits cover attacking your foes. The attack may take the form of a Longbow, a magic dagger, a trained attack dog or anything else that your mind can dream off; but the intent is always to do violence.
When you wish to attack with your Powers, roll your relevant allocated Dicepool against the chosen enemy.

Talents
You are unique, and amongst those things that make you The Most Unique is the fact that you can do a thing no one else in the whole of creation can do. Once per dungeon floor, you may elect to roll your Talent in lieu of a skill or power.
You can only ever have one Talent, and they come in one of three ice-cream flavours. Talents, unlike skills and powers, are rolled for using a single 1d4.

Vanilla Talents offer a simple but effective mechanical benefit, like a bonus to skill or power use. They succeed on a roll of 2, 3 or 4 and fail normally on a roll of 1.

Chocolate Talents are the middle ground; they can be powerful attacks or effective defenses and everything in between. They succeed on a roll of 4, fail on a roll of 1 and reroll on 2 and 3.

Mint Talents are destructive and unpredictable and can do anything your heart desires, up to and including one-hit killing your enemies or friends.
However, this power comes with a hefty drawback. On a roll of one, the power will backfire in a suitably devastating manner. On a roll of 2 or 3 it will fail normally and only on a 4 will it succeed.

Overall, Talents are there to give flavour to your character and should first and foremost be fun. I reserve the right to veto talents that will hinder the fun and or to propose changes to them that I think will accomplish the same goal without the fun ruining aspect.

---

GAMEPLAY
Each turn, you can roll two actions. Unless otherwise stated, you can pick an action more than once for your turn, or any other combination.

Talent
Rolled depending on your Talent Class - Available once per dungeon floor.

Defend
Declare a skill to be used for defense, allowing it to be used to avoid damage entirely or to make sure it is taken to the chosen trait before anything else. You can elect to defend yourself, someone else or parts of the environment depending on the skill used and the context it is used in.

Initiative
At the beginning of every floor, roll one of your skills for free to determine your Battle Readiness Score for the coming encounters. If you are dissatisfied with your result, you may make another attempt during normal gameplay at the cost of one of your actions.
The result will over-ride your previous score. The highest score will decide who gets to act first and the order in which actions are processed. In the case of a tie, I will make something up.

COMBAT AND DAMAGE
Your health and ability to continue fighting is represented by your total number of ranks (total dice pool, ie: the 12d6 you start with) in Skills and Powers.
Combat is resolved by rolling a power against an enemy, and them defending with a relevant skill such a dodging, or hiding behind an Obstacle or somewhere inside the environment.
For every Dice-threshold your roll beats theirs, one rank (1d6) of the defending skill is lost. Once an enemy has been reduced to zero overall ranks (wounds notwithstanding), they are dead.
The same naturally goes for you.

Overkill
If an entity takes more ranks of damage than they have in the designated defending skill, they take the rest of the damage in a skill or power at the GM’s discretion and gain an additional demerit: a wound worth an amount equal to the amount of ranks lost over what said entity had to begin with.
Wounds come in many flavourful variations, but will most often act as an automatic counter to a specific type of ability use. Wounds do not count for the total health pool of the wounded.

Status Effects/Obstacles
Sometimes you might want to use a skill to throw a wrench into a foes machinations without the risk of hurting them, for whatever reason. To do this, roll a skill as you would an attack.
For every rank your skill beats their designated defense, they gain a rank of status effect/obstacle that will act as a wound until it is targeted and defeated with an appropriate action. These fake-wounds do not count for the total health pool of the instigating entity nor the victim.

---

[TL/DR]

If any of this sounds too complicated; don't worry about it. The rules are subject to change and I will be doing most of the work behind the scenes. All I really need from you for the rounds and story to progress is a template filled in like the one you will find below.
Though banter and fluff-posts are highly encouraged and help fill in the world, they are by no means necessary. If there is a lot of pressure to join however I will likely skew recruitment to those who can make post of reasonable length.

Bio: At one point there was a somewhat bored, somewhat evil warlock who decided to conquer the realm. He figured the best way to go about it was to get your standard evil armies, such as goblins and orcs. However, he had a brilliant innovation in mind: Portability! He would use his arcane magicks to put an entire army of goblins into the space of a single goblin, to then unfold at an appropriate time. Most excellent for ambushes and misdirection. He succeeded at casting the spell to join all the goblins into one pile, but proceeded to die of a particularly poorly timed stroke. The goblins, stuck in a fairly hellish single body form, eventually created a new identity for their collective as Goblin-One-Battalion (GOB for short), and learned how to utilize this unique property of theirs to do things any single goblin couldn't! They can even split themselves apart a bit, but they always seem to snap back together after a short period of time.

They're also pretty insane due to being a horrible multi-dimensional construct of goblin. But they won't let that stop them from exploring this weird hole that just showed up under their village of a single house! Even though there is not really any reason to go down into it, they seem to think it's a good idea. Possibly they miss the dungeons that were their homes.

Skills:

Sneakiness (1d6): Being a goblin(s) makes GOB particularly good at getting around undetected, and other similarly unsavory abilities.

Goblin Formations (3d6): Splitting off goblins to form things such as goblin pyramids or goblin ladders. Their coordination is impressive, most of the time. The goblins all snap back into the main body at the start of GOB's next turn.

Be Everywhere (2d6): Splitting off goblins to do many tasks at once. Each goblin is still only as good as an individual goblin, but it's surprising what a goblin can do when the situation calls for it! The goblins all snap back into the main body at the start of GOB's next turn.

[I split up those two skills because they would probably be too overpowered together. One is for splitting up the goblins to work on a single task and the other is for splitting them up to work on different things.]

Powers:

Overwhelm With Numbers (2d6): Split up the goblins to attempt to overwhelm an opponent with sheer volume of hits. Effectiveness and weaponry varies greatly. All goblins snap back into the main body at the start of GOB's next turn.

An Indeterminate Number of Lives (3d6):Goblins aren't very good at dodging and aren't very armored. Luckily there is an indeterminate amount of them stacked up so they can just let some of the least liked ones take the hits.

Just Shank 'Em (1d6):When all else fails, goblins retreat to their most basic instict: Just stick a knife in 'em.

Talent (Chocolate):

One-Many-Talents: Try to find a goblin in the pile that is suited to dealing with the task at hand. Possibly end up with one that only THINKS they are suited for the task at hand, or worse, have the goblin realize the horror of their existence and do something foolish. GOB is a lot of goblins. They all have different skills and powers and mindsets but they're more or less all stuck in the communal mindset of Goblin-One-Battalion in order to not go insane. This ability attempts to surface a particular goblin to deal with a task, and have them not go utterly insane in the process. This is harder than it sounds! However, if it is accomplished, exactly the correct goblin for the situation will be found.

Also, whichever goblin is chosen by One-Many-Talents temporarily becomes the "face" of GOB, and acts as the central focus body for the collective, until such time as a new goblin is needed and One-Many-Talents is used again.

Lemme know if this is fitting, or too strong, or too weak or whatever. I haven't read the original Lord of the Tower yet but I might go through it this weekend.

Edit: Rethought the talent, this one seems more entertaining.

Edit 2: Started reading Lord of the Tower, found out the goblin picture I used is the exact same one used in the first event for that game. Whoops! The coincidence is amusing though so I'll keep it. Consider it an unintentional reference.

Edit 3: Just formatting changes and clearing up some descriptor text

Infinity Gaia fucked around with this message at Jul 2, 2017 around 14:34

...they shall march out of my laboratory and sweep away every adversary, every creed, every nation, until the very planet is in the loving grip of the Pax Bisonica. And then peace will reign, and the world, and all humanity, shall bow to me in humble gratitude...

Cue the PoltergeistSkills:Telekinesis [3d6]: Cue is a poltergeist, telekinesis is the signature power of his lineage.Troublesome [2d6]: Cue has the soul of a delinquent, and has an almost preternatural ability to cause trouble and be where it shouldn't be, or where its existence would cause the most grief.Fortune Teller [1d6]: "Reply Hazy." Cue does not speak, but does occasionally manifest cryptic messages that have a strange tendency to at least somewhat bear resemblance to future events.Powers:Extreme Prankster [4d6]: Cue's understanding of pranks is of an extremely violent sort, even if on occasion lacking in subtlety.Blindside [1d6]: Cue is small, and easy to lose track of due to its erratic movements. A perfect opportunity to slam into someone's nogging when they aren't looking.Flurry [1d6]: Sometimes you just have to brute force it. Cue throws a whole bunch of ambient small items (including itself) at the object of its ire.Talent (Chocolate):Behind the eight ball: Watch yourself or lose! Cue gains a 'scratch' token on a success. A scratch can be spent to turn any attack against Cue to hit the attacker instead via means of vile hex and ill fortune.

Bio:
In the town, in ages past, or so it is told, there was a boy of indeterminate age. He was not a very nice or kindly sort, it is known, indeed the very opposite. Always getting in trouble, frightening chickens with firecrackers, throwing eggs at cats, trying to catch old matrons unawares and set their pantaloons on fire. That sort of boy he was. A cruel and prankstery sort, for sure. Yet one day, when interupting a game of pool played by a hexer and his mannequin-like familiar in a local club by sneakily dabbing some glue on the latter's billiard chalk, did tragedy strike! For the incensed wizard, in a fit of anger, ripped off the boys soul and crammed it into the eight ball of the very game he was playing, to have the boy's soul inhabit an object of ill fortune FOR ALL TIME to mirror his cruel ways in an ironic punishment.

In the town, it is widely agreed: Perhaps making the local troublemaker into an ageless ghost with magic powers wasn't the brightest of all ideas ever. Maybe this new dungeon thing will at least distract him, for a while.

Bio: King is so amazing that when he was crowned, he ends the war and created the golden age in this world. There's also a time where he got a new cloth that only smart people can see, but that's censored history. ANYWAY, the king is here today because this awful underground tower with a girl voice is bothering people! Just like his 6 years old daughter that won't shut the hell up at 3'o clock! How dare someone spout a tunnel without permission in your land! NO MORE! The king and his man is here to seal up the hole and tell everyone to go home.

Skills:
1d6: Grumble Angrily - When the king is angry, people have no choice but to listen to it. Feel bad, man.
1d6: King's Presence - LOOK! It's the king! Bow down and respect! Praise the king!
1d6: Knighting - Who wants to be a knight? I will knight you if you protect me!

Power
1d6: King's Order - YOU! AND YOU! DO WHAT I TELL YOU FOR I AM THE KING! I OWN THIS LAND!
1d6: Kingdom's Treasury - I am rich, and you will accept credit cards!
7d6: King's Dominion: YOU ALL DO AS I SAID OR YOU ALL SHALL BE BEHEADED! KNIGHT! KNIGHT! TAKE HIM TO THE GUILLOTINE!

Talent
I AM THE KING (MINT) - 'King' related action will automatically succeed, but fail against crit.

Bio: An alien gestalt consciousness composed of tiny beings of pure energy, this is a relatively small cluster. Each individual Enkoridius is a miniscule floating spark of sentience, with very little ability to have an impact on the world and a tendency, if separated from the rest of its kind, to be very scared and upset. This cluster generally gathers together to hover in a five foot cube slightly above ground level. The more there are, the greater an effect they can have, with their method for doing so being the manipulation of energy and particle fields. A scout cluster, this particular entity was exploring a quaint and bijou city of fascinating bipeds when most of the place collapsed in on itself owing to the giant spiralling sinkhole. Ever curious, the Enkoridii are going to have a quick looksee as to what's up...

Skills

2d6 Manipulate Energy: Need a light? No problem. Need a lift? A quick shift of the local gravitic field, easy. Need a word? Localised generation of soundwaves. Not having much of a physical form isn't too much of an issue.

3d6 Incorporeality: Sometimes it can be an asset. The constituent tiny motes that comprise the entity are Ideal for checking things out through keyholes, hiding on surfaces, floating around as an unseen safety net or secret guarantor of safety, trickling in through cracks to take a closer look at a trap mechanism. Can't go through non-porous surfaces.

1d6 Boundless Optimism: Possessed of an alien demeanour that turns out to be surprisingly cheerful, always thinking there's a way to do something, never truly giving up hope, and otherwise looking at the world in a way that would make pessimists and realists roll their eyes. Could be useful trying to cheer people up and boost their morale, or irritate those with a less bubbly outlook into rash action.

Power

3d6 Hostile Environment: The Enkoridii are not prone to violence, but when they fight, they fight dirty. Is the air a little too warm for you? Feeling a little too heavy as if the gravitational constant had a thumb on the scale? finding it hard to think with that crackling static in your ears and in your mind? This is energy manipulation to cruel and unusual ends.

2d6 Like Fighting Thin Air: Dealing with lots of tiny little floating lights is not a fun experience for an opponent. Hard to hit, hard to hurt, and in order to harm the gestalt you'd need to put a lot of them out of action. This lends the Enkoridii a great deal of resilience against purely physical assaults, and a fair amount against those energetic in nature. On the offensive, being able to surround and attack an enemy from all sides in a manner corporeal foes can barely imagine lends a significant advantage.

1d6 Just Blast Them: Finesse is all well and good, but some times you just need a straightforward blast of energy, electricity or the like. This is inefficient for the Enkoridii, but they can do it when needed.

Talent (Chocolate)

Call the Rest of Me: This is a scout cluster of the Enkoridii. Get enough of this stuff over a long enough period of time and it can infest planets, with a concomitant increase in power. If, in direst need, the Enkoridii need an overwhelming amount of power to do something, they can try and phone home for a boost. No guarantees.

Bio: Emille was once part of her city's teeming hordes of urchins, but all that changed when she decided to hide in a particular back alley. In it, she found an impossibly old man, withered to the point being grotesque, his one eye like pitch. When the man asked if she wanted to learn magic and become a hero, she reluctantly said yes. The old man, who called himself Marius, took her in and began teaching her the ways of battle, as well as the art of pyromancy. True to the old man's word, Emille had all the makings of a hero when her training was complete. She was in the city, taking a well deserved rest after a particularly grueling adventure, when the hole opened.

Skills:

Pyromancy [3d6]: The modern foundation of Pyromancy is based on two fundamental spells: Ignite and Quench. A pyromancer's skill is judged by what they can (and cannot) set aflame or put out. Particularly skilled users are able to apply these spells to intangible concepts; setting someone's passions aflame, for example.

Acrobatics [2d6]: Emille's quick reflexes and training allow her to perform the most astonishing leaps and dodges.

Ignite/Quench [3d6]: With scarcely a wave of her hand and a hard stare, Emille sets her target on fire. (Or puts it out, as appropriate.) She's also capable of setting her sword alight, giving her a bonus to its next use.

Radiance [2d6]: Her estoc, made out of a special kind of blackened starmetal, was a gift from Marius. There is very little armor it cannot pierce through and it holds onto heat and flames remarkably well.

Arquebus [1d6]: For when you just gotta shoot a dude. Powerful, but inaccurate.

Talent (Chocolate)

The Master's Mark: Before she entered the dungeon, Master Marius did...something. He started communicating with Emille telepathically, promising to help her from afar if she needed it in the dungeon. Out of the corner of her eye, she started noticing a large black shape following her around.

Pippin BogleechSkillsSpicery - 2d6 - Any chef worth 'is salt knows the value of properly seasoning 'is dishes.Scavenging - 2d6 - Good ingredients cost a lot of dough. Over the years I trained me peepers to spot the best bargains.Etiquette - 2d6 - Sure, egg on the greenskin for being 'dainty'. I'll have you know those are called 'manners'. And if you don't have manners in the fancy dining business, you're not gonna have very nice clientele.

PowersConjure flame - 1d6 - Yeah, I know me some magic. Ain't no faster way to sear a steak.Conjure cooking utensil - 4d6 - A poor chef blames 'is tools. A good chef only uses ethereal utensils that he summoned 'imself.Lose me patience - 1d6 - Sometimes me orc blood is sent boiling by stuff. I'm not proud of it, I admit. But nothing gets me apprentices to work harder than bulging a vein in me neck.

TalentCAN have your [chocolate] cake and eat it - A magic spell which lets Pippin cook a delicious feast for the whole wave using nearby materials (even inedible ones) as ingredients. Eating restores a lost rank, but takes an action. Uneaten food evaporates into nothingness once the turn is over.

Action

So there I wuz, leading the kitchen staff of my restaurant before the start of the lunch time rush, when the very earth beneath me feet started to shake. 't was just a minor quake I thought. No big deal. Happens all the time. Except when I looked out the window, there wuz this big hole right in front of the Buckin' Mare that had swallowed up me whole terrace! "Bugger me", I thought, "good thing I bought that insurance!". And that's when I went back to work, thinkin' this sordid mess would blow over real fast.

But no! Turns out this ain't no normal sink hole. There's this whole dungeon thing, with people who crawled out of it. They say some bird tricked them into coming down there or whatever. At first I didn't mind those people. But then people from outside of the city rushed in to watch this big hole. You'd be wrong to think that's good for business! The cheeky buggers don't order food, they're just here to watch. Some even have the bloody nerve to watch it from inside the restaurant without ever placing an order!

I tell you what. I'm going to down that hole, track down the lousy git in charge of the place, and give 'em a piece of me mind!

Zybourne Clock fucked around with this message at Jul 2, 2017 around 13:08

Though its sudden appearance had been quiet destructive, the Dungeon proved to be a boon to most of the communities in which it had appeared, if only for the nearly constant outpouring of creatures and travelers upon which wise merchants, crafty crooks, noble heroes or other generic fantasy archetypes could prey upon.

For most, but not all. The Dungeon, in as much as a finely crafted hole could ever be said to have a mind to do anything, had appeared wherever its unfathomable design required with no regard to the local context or geometries.
Mass drownings were a common result, and there was at least one total extinction event as the magitek core of a worldship was unceremoniously, some might even say uncaringly, replaced.

Others noticed that not all the creatures that crawled out were kind, nor at all easy to deal with.
Not a few future legends and myths began with rampages in a soon to be former Dungeon-town, but that is neither here nor there.

You begin your journey, like many others across Creation, with a single step. Or flap of wings, or telekinetic push, or muscle-spasm or however it is you locomote, across the first threshold of the Dungeon.
It is a liminal moment when all that you knew is left behind, replaced only with the cold walls of a chamber that looks much deeper than what it had seemed to be from the outside. Behind you is naught but stone wall, and above?

The stars.

You are joined on your new adventure by other entities, many which are unlike any you have seen before. All look as confused as you feel, even those that have no looks with which to appear.
A few of them despair, scraping at the harsh stones with fingers or bones or tools arcane in function. It matters not. Others take their fate with confidence, strolling down the stairs as if nothing in the world was wrong.

One man, a giant of a man with muscles upon muscles wearing nothing but an ill fitting harness strikes a fearsome pose.

He shouts in a language you do not understand, but thouh his speech is a mystery his intentions are not. You know well enough that this is a man not to be trifled with, yet one who has never encountered a serious setback in his life. Was there any on his world that could challenge him?

With a triumphant leap he plunges into the pit, intent on reaching the end before all others through a gross interpretation of the unwritten rules.

The bottom of the Dungeon, within plain sight yet so much further down then when you first laid eyes upon it. You know instinctively that to reach it is Glory in Victory and that your chance to do so before the Hero is getting infinitely smaller with every picosecond of his descent.

One story, two stories, three stories...

Some panic, in their minds eye seeing their hopes and dreams dashed by a dirty cheat. Someone draws a crossbow, but before they have a chance to put it to use a wave of force knocks him and all others onto their knees or knee like equivalents.
The falling hero is no longer falling. He is flying. Bouncing from wall to wall as if something invisible was playing a game of Pong with him as the ball.
With every blow the man is torn, and every tear reaches much further into him than to something as insignificant as his bones.

You watch, in whatever mood strikes your fancy, but quiet probably mortal terror, as the giant of a man is reduced to Nothing before your eyes.
Those of you with magic senses, extraordinary vision or the tech that would allow you to notice it can confirm that there is quiet literally Void where once was man. Not mere disintegration, the man is -gone - full stop.

"S̴er̢vés̷ hi͝m ri͢g̀ht҉ "

--

When it is clear that the spectacle is over, the group continues its Delve down the steps of the dungeon, constantly descending yet taking much longer to reach your goal than physics would indicate.
Indeed, when you look above you after an hour you notice no discernible increase in distance from the top, even though you can clearly see the path behind you lazily circling back up.

But just as soon as you think that this path might go on forever, you turn the corner and come upon a choice of doors. One is a barred gate, with the path beyond clearly discernible.
The other is opaque, offering no clues at to what lies behind it, aside from the fact that they are both set in the same wall and should thus logically lead to the same place.

The group splits, with the majority heading through the barred gate further into the depths of the dungeon. The other half, yours, find it odd that something so mysterious should be so easy and so or for other reasons decide to take a chance.
The opaque door is open and though the inside is naught but darkness, you step inside.

---

First Floor – The Beach Beyond Darkness

You find yourself awaking on a beach somewhere you have never been with the distinct impression that you are being Watched. The shore is muddy and the weather overcast. The sea is wet and dangerous.
The currents are strong here, swimming would be ill advised, though you must admit the land ahead does not look especially inviting either.

-

Goblin-One-Battalion
A thousand goblins wake up at the same place at the same time, rousing an unknown but significant number of other goblins into a state one might called Woke.
You all 'landed', for a lack of a better term, in a thick brown shrub, crushing its delicate leaves with your highly variable mass. Spurdle, one of your many many many scouts is the first to report to the collective.

"Ey guys, i smells somethin! Smells like egg it does! Big ol' eg all for us, who woulda' thunk it!? Is just by that cliff over there, c'mon before the others grab it!"

-

Cue the Poltergeist
You bounce of a wave and then another, finally coming to rest against one of the few rocks that littre the shore. You hover uncertainly shake yourself to figure out what is to come.

"Outcome Egg"

Curious.

There are many many many many many but also only one goblin further down the shore. They seem to have come to the same conclusion. There is precious little else of interest in sight, beyond the others who went through the opaque door with you.

-

King Norman
What an amazing beach that must surely be part of your kingdom even though you never visited and no one lives here to pay you tax. Yes, if only you had a servant with which to plant a flag to claim it for yourself.
Maybe you could have someone set up a resort here, or at least fetch you a drink. Further down the shore you spot an uncountable number of obvious minions, goblins perhaps? They are shouting something about eggs. Eggs!
What tomfoolery, why you haven't eaten an egg all day. How dare they get the first egg? Knights?! KNIGHTS?! Where are your knights? Did you forget to take them with you again? You sigh internally, you will just have to improvise.

-

The Enkoridii
You sense ever on the back of your mind a gentle probing push of curiosity, in the same way a gnat would experience the Nigara falls if it suddenly came to visit. You have tried your best to shut those senses off, though some of you remains facinated by the feeling.
Many strange things are happening. There is an ever-occurring spatial collapse further down the shore, a black hole that is constantly repairing itself and vomiting not light but goblins, only for them to fall back in a moment later. It is both amusing and unsettling to your many senses.

A loose aggregation of rock fragments, sand and other igneous particles litter the expanse 'beneath' you in local spatial context.
Not that you have a side per say, but the other members of your group mostly do so you feel it only fair to bow to the overall majority on matters of orientation.

You idly manipulate the unstirring wind to shift the collective further inland and send some cursory probes to figure out the lay of the land.
he reports are not very encouraging; A gestating organism covered in calcium carbinate on a lattice of proteins as well as a small deposit of precious metal.
Other then that, nothing out of the ordinary, aside from the presumably sentient entities you came here with.

The 'egg' (for short) is [one unit of arbitrary distance] away. Additionally, your probes indicate that the ground cover is illogically impenetrable to the energy waves of the visual spectrum.

-

Emille Addison
Waagh! A beach!? But there was a door and ... oh, magic. It was probably magic. Marius had of course told you all about portals, but as a pyromancer you had little aptitude for matters of teletransportation.
Supposedly they took you from one place to the other without a care for the intervening distance, and not all of them where two-way affairs.
Marius had tried teaching you how to Quench one, once when you came upon one by chance in your studies, but however hard you tried you couldn't get the knack for it.

Nevermind portals then, what was important was not being killed by the army of goblins or wait,.. is that King Norman? His (yours, technically) actual royal highness? Quests from the nobility always paid very well and he was muttering something about an egg.
Well, fetch-quest or no it was as good an objective as you were going to get on this desolate shore. King Norman was waving his scepter roughly up-shore, probably to indicate to all that would pass where his new egg was and that to please get it for him, but there were a few other sights to behold as well.

The cliffs, which your keen adventuring senses told you were climbable (even though it didn't look like they lead anywhere particularly interesting), the sea sure to be full of fish or perhaps even monsters, and the beach itself where you know pirates sometimes buried treasure, because of course they would.

-

Pippin Bogleech
You fall from the sky into a pile of lesser greenskins, crushing one beneath your sauce-pan clad robe. With a grunt, you feel around in the gore and pick out a fresh liver and stow it haphazardly in your pack.

So, a beach? Not what you expected certainly but beaches always held the promise of picknick and the gathering of delicious ingredients. If the sea was salty (and why wouldn't it be?) perhaps there could even be some prime quality salt deposits nearby.
What a treat that would be, to fill your backpack spice rack.

Suddenly the gobinoid chorus around you burst out into songs of Egg, hopping and hollering and in general being a nuisance. You pick one up by the skull and yell at it to shut its mouth and also tell you where the egg is.
Its beedy little eyes stare at you in abject horrorconfusion at your impossible geas. Gulping hard and pointing up-shore, hoping for the best.

--

Everyone
There are no obvious threats here, but there is an egg further up-shore and some cliffs one could potentially clamber up.
You get the sense that you are being watched by something other than your scattered group, and though you have so far been able to ignore this feeling you find you cannot any longer.
It develops from a mere irritation at the back of your mind to a knowledge at the forefront; and from that knowledge soon blooms the flower of fact.

"Welcome to the Dungeon and stuff, deepdelvers. Yeah I'm that voice you heard? No I'm not really here, like, in person or whatever. You'll see.
Anyway, congratulations on passing the first trial. The trial of not being an idiot. And the second trial, the trial of also not being an idiot.
I confess there are a lot of those, but you are like, doing swimmingly so far, so whatever." <you can feel eyes roll even if you have no concept of eyes> "Anyway like, please get on with it? I don't have all day you know. No that's a lie I do but I find it incredibly boring if you just sit there. Go do stuff already. Ciao."

CURSES! I was here to seal up the illegal hole, but some witchcraft lure me into this shithole instead! *Gasp* This beach and the land... It's beautiful!

Yes...

YES!

As the king who cared about land and ownership, I will make not only this, but all the lands in this hole to be his! His kingdom will grow even more prosperous with all these good land and natural resources! I will start with this land and turn it into a vacation resort! People will loves it!

However, looking around the bench, my usual attendant are missing. They should had known to follow whenever i go out! Do i have to TELL them to follow!? What a bunch of useless good for nothing body guards! It can't be helped, you will draft some local citizens to serve the kingdom!

"Listen, everyone! I am King Norman! The ruler of the land that this hole dwell! As such, by natural rights, I will claim everything in this hole as my land! Those who wishes to serve me will be granted riches from the vast treasury, and fame will be spread throughout the kingdom to revere you as a HERO! Come! Accept the honor of becoming my knights!"

Pippin stood up and wiped the blood and viscera off his apron, then surveyed his surroundings for a brief moment. He'd never been magically teleported before and found the sensation to be a tad disorienting. One moment he was walking down some stairs, and the next he found himself on a beach covered in goblin guts. That was more than a bit unusual, and he briefly wondered if there was a reason he'd been brought to this specific beach for a reason.

'Briefly' being the operative word. What he found more important what hearing the voice welcoming him to the dungeon. Was this the person who actually owned the structure? If it was, it would save him a lot of trouble finding the person in charge to file a complaint. The orc scraped his throat, and began talking to the open air.

"Hello, madam. Me name is Pippin Bogleech, proprietor and head chef of the Buckin' Mare. I would like to inform you of the fact that your building has wrecked me restaurant's terrace. Not only that, your hole has attracted all sorts of folks to my restaurant who only come in to look at your hole without placing any orders for food. If you'd kindly relocate the hole, I would very much appreciate it. Please do not make me consider legal recourse".

Pippin's tone then shifted to something a bit less commanding, and asked the Lady about who she was, and why she had decided to materialize this dungeon in his town.

There. That was a fairly courteous opening to a land dispute. Pippin knew these sort of affairs had to be handles with a certain degree of class. After all, you're better off catching flies with honey than with vinegar. A thought crossed the orc's mind. Could the dungeon's owner even hear him talk?

...they shall march out of my laboratory and sweep away every adversary, every creed, every nation, until the very planet is in the loving grip of the Pax Bisonica. And then peace will reign, and the world, and all humanity, shall bow to me in humble gratitude...

Cue threw itself here, and then over there, trying to find some vantage on this empty beach for trickery. Was there any such thing, though? All that there was was EGG. People seemed to want EGG. Perhaps then, a game of telekinetic keep-away? Yes, this would ruffle feathers! To keep things that people wanted out of reach, this was a classic poltergeist trick. Even King Norman seemed to want EGG so it must have been a very important EGG!

...wait King Norman? The king was here? Yes, in that moment Cue was overtaken by a desire to fulfill ambition it was certain it had always had even though it was born mere moments ago.

Cue threw itself at the King, floated a few excited laps over his crowned head, and manifested, for a moment, a flickering sigil of unsaid but clear desire.

"Good! Good! Men and women has flock to serve me! "Everyone who choose to serve me! I would glad bestow the honorable position of Knights to you all, but alas the royal sword is not with me! But fred not, for when I do, your loyalty will earn my blessing! "

Knight everyone who serve me: Auto Succeed

Without the sword, King Norman will do a ceremonial gesture with the scepter... Of course!

pre:

Theantero wait, *specter*?
Theantero A knighting specter would be rad
Theantero just this ghost butler, that has to follow the King's every inane whim
Nyaa scepter the specter resides in the royal sword
Nyaa He used to be the greatest royal knight
Theantero nice
Nyaa Someone who king norman mint talented too hard
Theantero this better be actual canon now

Scepter the ghost who resides in the royal sword materialized to serve the King who desire to knights other warriors! Wielding his ghost version of the Royal Sword, the ghost will fly around to knight everyone to serve the king!

"Oy the scouts was bein' useful fer once, finding this grea' big eyg before all these other humies and ball and orcz and shinies did. Good job scoutz, temporary promotion for yous, ye get to be Face fo' a bit!", said current core goblin Turbles, relinquishing his status as core goblin. It was too much work anyways.

In an odd display the goblin mass seemed content to chatter to itself before briefly reassembling into the form of the initial scout who reported the egg, Spurdle. He was excited, he hadn't gotten to be Face before! The collective as a whole barely noticed the couple of goblins crushed by the orc, though notice was taken of it being kinda rude.

"Big un's always talk too much. Talk talk. Why talk when there is EGG? EGG more important! Not sure why, but is! But scoutz nose only goes so far, only know general direction. Gob work together to get EGG, all enjoy! Good times!", said Spurdle to GOB as a whole.

The collective murmured in agreement that EGG was clearly of great import, though a couple seemed to be morally or physiologically opposed to eating egg they were quickly silenced by the group as a whole. Who was, until that moment, still only a goblin. Until that suddenly stopped being a thing, as about a hundred or so goblins erupted from the initial body and started running wildly in every direction, unfortunately not many in the direction of EGG (Be Everywhere, Attempt to Locate EGG : 4)

"Second Gob Scoutz uneet, advanze!"

As the Second Gob Scoutz were still a unit of Goblin scouts, a vast majority of the group instead immediately turned around and started examining the other members of their odd little group and the general surroundings with all sorts of different intentions, though a clear consensus is to not be aggressive yet and instead to observe and attempt to appear non-threatening to the humies and other weirdies so they didn't start with the stabbing and the poking, and to try to be friendly. At least two or three goblins attempt to get knighted, but unless the entire group does so having 2 or 3 knighted goblins in their ranks will have barely any effect at all, due to simple dispersion. (Be Everywhere, General Attempt to be Friendly, In A Somewhat Gobby Way : 8)

"You idjits, yer supposed to be goin' after EGG! Yer neva gonna be Face if ye don't eat well!", yells the current core, Spurdle, to his entirely too distracted to notice scout unit.

Infinity Gaia fucked around with this message at Jul 2, 2017 around 20:30

[Spandreloctalos][Skills]Somatosensory Core Unit[2d6]: The core of Spandreloctalos’ sensory apparatus - used to detect, communicate, and examine. He will attempt to protect this Trait where possible.Soft Body [2d6]: His body is made of loose and pliable clay, which can be used to cushion impact or reshaped for reasonable purposes.Adhesive Body [2d6]: The clay forming his body is adhesive, allowing him to climb and hold things with surprising effectiveness.

[Powers]Somatodynamic Core Unit[2d6]: The core of Spandreloctalos’ physical attributes and motion. It motivates his clay body and allows it to perform feats of strength. He will attempt to protect this Trait where possible.Inhabit [2d6]: Spandreloctalos detaches a portion of his volition and inhabits an inanimate object or piece of solid matter. The resultant golems are foolish and short-lived, but their power and versatility is undeniable.Clay Torrent [2d6]: Spandreloctalos slams his opponent with his clay body, or else fires out fist sized chunks, or else crushes them with his bulk.

Talent (Mint):Somatoreconfiguration Sequence On a success, Spandreloctalos charges his matter repurposer. When so charged, he can opt to cancel an attack against himself, stealing the Trait the opponent used as he does so. The Trait replaces the lowest ranked Trait he has - save for either Core Unit Trait. If either Core Unit Trait is lost, a charge will instead replace both of them to 2d6.

Bio:
Spandreloctalos - or Span - lived with his people until the Dungeon appeared, and then he entered the Dungeon. He was yet Unformed, after all, and what better place to find his Heart’s True Components than inside such a mysterious and dangerous place?

Span, like his fellow Autogolemae, was formed rough from the Holy clay and awakened into his Core Unit with hundreds of his siblings. Until the Dungeon arrived, Span assumed he would remain Unformed and and work in drudgery for at least several kalpa: there was no deep purpose allotted to him - he was merely a spare. But now - but now! - he could explore, and cast away his soft and brittle clay, and incorporate metal or glass or beastflesh into his form. What would the others think of him then, when he returned a hulking Thousandtype Collosus, glittering with the riches of a hundred worlds?

How very intriguing! It could float here and watch that fascinating N-biped singularity for (Large units of time), but there was so much more to investigate. Equally curious was the simultaneous sensation of being under observation, not to mention the communication. 'Go do stuff already' was entirely in line with its precepts, and it was more than happy to comply. It seemed the bipeds were similar to the ones it had been observing earlier, communicating through vibrating the local gaseous medium. Relatively easy to receive and transmit, and it had been a fun challenge for (Medium units of time) working out meaning.

One of the bipeds seemed to be taking charge, and the Enkoridii were happy to comply with that for the time being. After all, most things here seemed to be bipeds. Let's see if it still had the hang of that air-vibrating thing

"Greet you, 'King Norman'-biped. I am the Enkoridii. No problems foreseen following your lead here. I will do so."

The collection of lights hovered near the king for a bit, but sent off a part of itself to merge with the earlier probes and get a better look at that precious metal it had sensed earlier. Bipeds liked precious metals, for some reason, so it might as well see if it looked worthwhile bringing it to their attention as a friendly fellow sophont gesture.

3d6 Incorporeality to goand take a much closerlook at the precious metal for use in Biped diplomacy:11

Emille calmly looked over her new surroundings. A beach, and not a giant crab or sea monster in sight! Oh, and strangely enough King Norman was there too, handing out knighthoods apparently. Emille kneeled and accepted hers with the expected grace. While it was a great honor, she wasn't exactly thrilled with it, as she preferred the freelance lifestyle. Hopefully it wouldn't prove to be too...binding once they were out.

Suddenly, her master's voice entered her mind, simultaneously distant and crystal clear, "Emille, can you hear me?". She replied outloud, feeling a little foolish, "Yes, Marius. I seem to have ended up on some beach."

"Excellent, then the piggybacking was a success. Take a look down." Emille looked down. At first she saw nothing, but from *behind* her shadow, the shape of a man leaned out and waved before retreating back to its cover. She reflexively looked behind her, but saw nothing. Curious, but not out of the ordinary; pyromancy wasn't the only form of magic the old man knew.

Marius's voice let out a chuckle, "Let me know if you require any help. I'll try to join you in person when I can, I need to get a few things. Oh, and be careful. I can only imagine now dangerous this place is."

While the others occupied themselves with some sort of egg, the spellblade thought it prudent to get a better look of the area. She removed a grappling hook from her pack, loaded it into her arquebus, and fired it up the cliff.

Adventuring Gear [1d6] to shoot a grappling hook and rope up the cliff:3

She watched the hook sail over the top of the cliff. Hopefully she hadn't overshot; she was still getting the hang of this arque-whatever thing. With or without the rope's help, she began jumping and darting her way up the cliff face.

Though you had entered via a simple opaque door, your egress is a far cry from such a mild mannered affair. You fall from the sky onto a beach, saved from inactivation only by the malleability of your form. Perhaps clay wasn't so bad, after all?

You reform yourself from the aesthetically pleasing aerodynamic disc-shape that you threw together at the last second and extend your Somatosensory Core Unit instrumentation to get a broad-spectrum review of the local environs and their exploitable resources.

Goblin-One-Battalion
One by one Spurdle divides into thousands of goblins, stumbling around in all directions with only somewhat of a semblance of a destination.
Still, a glob of gobboes that might well enough be a majority cartwheel, skip and run almost all the way to Egg, only to encounter something that no one had anticipated.

The beach is litterally filled to the brim with traps of every sort, most of them terrible. There are bear-traps and mouse-traps and pit-traps and even a springy board, and the goblins leap over them with gleeful abandon.
The traps snap at the goblins feet, only appearing when one is stepped upon or nearly touched, and though some goblins are nicked none actually perish in the inanimate assault. Still, even though many have been triggered there are doubtlessly thousands more.
At long last they come upon it; Egg. It lays upon the soil and a crude crown of pure gold has been fastened upon it. Ready for the taking.

The other goblins, those who either couldn't figure out which direction was up-shore or who were simply more interested in the other deepdelvers than Egg have roughly clustered around King Norman, who is dealing out Knighthoods by the handful.
In the hullabaloo enough of the Goblins get knighted that they as a whole feel Knighthood is something they can subscribe to, and so they add it to their already massive list of talents and abilities, centrering themselves at once around a new personality fit for the task at hand.

[Future Talent Activated! Knighthood Auto-success!][Goblin One Battalion Gains an item! Sort of! Its more of an intangible concept really! The Medal of Knighthood grants you +1d6 to any action (except for talent use) when acting in accordance to the Kings wishes!
Items do not count for your Hitpoint Total though they may be lost through other means.]

---

Pippin Bogleech
Elsewhere, on the beach, Pippin addressed the sky, filing a complaint to any that would hear. Who is responsible for this mess, and who would pay him for customers lost and the damage to his property! He demanded answers! (Etiquette 11) vs Overworked Pan-Creational Dungeon Staff: 23 = failure!

All he received in return was a small parchment with a number on it, denoting his place in the queue. The number did not fit on the page and trawled of a few centimeters into the open air beyond its edge.[Pippin obtains an Item! It is Your Place In the Queue. It contains a very large number and has absolutely no value. Congratulations.]

With a sad sort of sigh, he instead opted to ask the owner of the mysterious voice what the big deal was, trusting that the management would speak to him face-to-face as was only good and proper.
(etiquette 6) vs ???

The reply came immediately.

"Oh it wasn't my idea. Not really. I probably would have put it somewhere else, like, I dunno, outside of town I guess?? But apparently that wasn't dramatic enough, so whatever. As for me? Like, wouldn't you like to know mister.
I suppose you would since that's why you asked right? If you haven't figured it out by now I'm sorry to say but I don't think you will do well at the other trials. But I'll give you tell you anyway free of charge even, isn't that magnanimous or something.
Yeah, thats me. Magnaminous. Not that that's my name, it isn't, not really. Its a quality I have. Anyway, this is The Dungeon and I'm pretty much in charge of it, yup. I don't care what you call me but most seem to think of me as the Lady, the Girl, the Voice or random strings of profanity."

---

Emille

Emille and the shadow of her mysterious master Marius were quick to get their bearings, their combined adventuring experience coming to the fore and suggesting to them that a good vantage was worth far more than any of the other eggcitement that this beach offered.
Loading her Arquebus with her fancy prototype Grappling Hookshot, she gave careful aim and fired aiming for a sturdy looking rock at the top of the cliff.

She watched the Grappling Hook sail away in an arc, landing perfectly and securing itself nicely in the rock. Her smiled waned somewhat when Marius pointed out, sicker barely contained, that she had forgotten to first secure the rope.

Though the cliff was much harder to scale than it would have been had she only been more prepared, she was strong enough and agile enough that it mattered little.
As the various entities beneath her spread out and did their own thing, some shouting and others laughing lost in their own little words, she clambered somewhat deftly over the edge only to see; nothing at all of interest.

She took a step forward and then one back, recoiling in horror when her hand disappeared completely. A wave of relief came over her when it appeared again, unharmed, as soon as she did so.
Carefully, she waved her Arquebus infront of her, noting that it too disappeared. "A Quenching Field, attuned to the Visual? Be careful, Emille, powerful sorcery is afoot! I suspect that whoever has laid this Enchantment has something dangerous to hide." Marius helpfully provided.

---

Cue the Poltergeist
Cue bounced over many goblin heads with sadistic joy, exctatic to find itself within King Normans domain. It threw itself at his mercy and was rewarded for its efforts, the symbol in its window turning from a jesters hat into that of the Noble Heraldry of Norman.

[Future Talent Activated! Knighthood Auto-success!][Cue Gains an item! Sort of! Its more of an intangible concept really! The Medal of Knighthood grants you +1d6 to any action (except for talent use) when acting in accordance to the Kings wishes!
Items do not count for your Hitpoint Total though they may be lost through other means.]

Oh, but the King wanted his Egg, did he not? Thus an Egg Cue would supply, perhaps only lightly scrambled over the wailing and gnashing of teeth of the other deepdelvers.

Ripping the Egg from its resting place, it came flying overhead much to the consternation of all involved. Especially Cue as it was hit hit by a wave of psychic energy that scrambled its attempt to utilize its Talent and also hurt a bunch.

Cues display cracked under the assault, rolling out a million and one random images before finally stopping on the image of sad face. For now, there would be no more fortunes told.

[Cue takes 1 damage! Cue loses the Fortune Teller ability!]

---

King Norman
The Great King Norman took it all in. The beach, the potential servants, the strange voice. Ah, it was good to be king. He summoned Scepter Royal Knighting Sword Spectre, to do all the hard work for him. The ghostly servant did as he was told, as he always had. Always would. Forever.

[Talent success! Action Success! Knighthoods Granted Automatically Retro and Futureactively for the rest of the turn!]

---

Emille
Imagine her surprise when it turned out Marius had been right, and a rain of arrows appeared out of thin air to strike her down? That some sailed over the edge to hit her allies below was little comfort, when she had no idea where her new enemy lay in ambush.
Whatever shall our young adventurer do?

The Enkoridii
The Enkoridii spent a few to many [arbitrary time units] collecting data on the movement of the amusing bipeds and a few to few on the sudden appearance of the inbound kinetic projectiles.
Fortunately they were made out of energy motes and didn't much care about a few pointy sticks raining down amongst them. Oh, bipeds and their pointy sticks. Will they ever learn? [Arbitrary period of reflection upon observational humour ensues]

But oh, the amusing biped seemed rather a lot more upset than the situation warranted. The Enkoridii were aware of the value bipeds generally placed upon precious ore and so it sought to cheer the biped up by manipulating gravity in such a way that the closest unclaimed collection of such appeared in front of it. It was a pure Aurum in the shape known to your kind to represent a symbol of leadership, though much fancier than the amusing biped had been wearing up until the kinetic projectile strike.

So grateful was the King that he immediately knighted the Enkoridii on the spot. Not at all because it was under attack and needed all the help it could get, no, because it obviously saw your alien grace and valued you as an equal. That must be it.[Previous Talent Activated! Knighthood Auto-success!]
[The Enkoridii Gains an item! Sort of! Its more of an intangible concept really! The Medal of Knighthood grants you +1d6 to any action (except for talent use) when acting in accordance to the Kings wishes!
Items do not count for your Hitpoint Total though they may be lost through other means.]

It virtually beamed with pride. Then switched to actually beaming with pride at its find and title. Then stopped when it noticed that amusing biped could not actually comprehend ultraviolet.
Oh well, it's the thought that counts they thought. But what is even better than thought is action, and so The Enkoridii swarmed the crown, looking to discover the secrets of gold with which to negotiate future deals with the Deepdelvers.

It was Gold alright. Lots and lots of Gold. Packed so tightly that they couldn't get in, no matter how hard they tried.

--

[Spandreloctalos]
'Span' began exploring as per protocol amongst his kind, trying to activate his Somatoreconfiguration Sequence. Alas, some internals must have been knocked around in the crash and he received only [Input Error]. [Normal Mint Talent Failure]

These were definitely not unfelt. At first one by one, then soon dozen by dozen; goblin knights are completely overwhelmed with invisible strikes, falling in ever increasing piles of the wounded and dead.
Most of the attacks target the arms and limbs, and so the overall Goblin Gestalt finds itself subconsciously clutching all of its arms in pain. With all the shouting going on, they won't be sneaking anywhere anytime soon.

[Goblin-One-Battalion takes 2 ranks of damage, losing his Sneakiness and one rank of Be Everywhere as his knights are cut down on the spot! Additionally, you now have a [Terrible Arm Spasm!] Wound that will automatically roll against you when the situation requires. Oh no!

Even if you are mostly energy, the enemy seems to be mostly stabbing, and the statistics of chance turn out to not be in your favour.
Oh no! You radiate, the amusing biped is hurt, and now so are you as some sort of kinetic force is imparted into your constituent motes via physical application. And you thought this was going to be so much fun! Now you feel like crying instead.

"WAAAAAUGH!" was about the most competent sound Spurdle could make when suddenly rather a lot of his scout unit got slashed and poked by something it couldn't see. This was not a good time for any of them! "I's really no good face! No good against invisiblies! No good place to hide! NO GOOD SPURDLEEEE!", the core goblin cried out as the rest of the goblins snapped back into it. They collectively decided Spurdle should take a break from being the core, possibly permanently. This was a very dangerous situation afterall, and most goblins aren't equipped to deal with mysterious invisible attackers. Most of them.

Unfortunately the GOB expert in Fighting Invisible Things had just gotten itself punctured by said invisible thing, being too distracted by its newfound knighthood. Drats. Spurdle would have to remain the core for the time being, despite really not wanting to anymore.

"AHHHH NOOOO I NO LIKE INVISIBLES, INVISIBLES CANNOT BE SCOUTED WAAAAUGH!", exclaims Spurdle, clearly too distraught to form a coherent strategy. The gestalt as a whole decide to maintain a defensive holding pattern of putting the most annoying members of their troupe in front while running around blindly, hoping that no one else important gets killed. Except Spurdle. They'd be pretty okay with it if Spurdle was killed. He was getting kinda annoying.

Also, MAN that was kind of a nasty trick to pull on people for the first turn! I think we might as well only have 1 roll per turn, it feels dumb after this to not CONSTANTLY be choosing a defense action.

Infinity Gaia fucked around with this message at Jul 3, 2017 around 12:36

Harm had been done to a constituent Enkoridius. Pain, loss and above all else anger rebounded through the consciousness: If something was trying to harm it, that was the last free hit that something would get. Crackling with rage, it fanned out, dodging and weaving with evasive brownian motion at the slightest hint of contact.

The attackers were not on the visible spectrum, but that was extremely irrelevant. They were exerting directional kinetic force in a repeated pattern: the start of that pattern could be detected and assaulted in broad-spectrum retaliation. Micro-localised gravity spikes to disorient and throw off their aim, increased molecular agitation to heat them up and radiate in the slightly-less-than-an-octave that most bipeds could visibly comprehend, and equal and opposite directional kinetic force, see how they liked it!

These invisible stabbers are in a 3d6 hostile environment: The Enkoridii are retaliating with all manner of targeted manipulative microaggressions aiming both to do harm and to light them up for the other 'knight'-things.11

Emille let out a merry yell as she ducked and weaved around the pointy things. Things were getting interesting now! This was the best ambush she had been in since Mad King Azzam's palace of mirrors! First, something had to be done about the quenching field before more pointies got fired off. "Master! Do you have any ideas?", she shouted as she batted aside a stray arrow with her Estoc.

"Well, you could just ignite it away, but I believe I have a more elegant solution. One moment."

The Master's Mark:4Noctomancy[5d6]:22 to reverse the the field's polarity, giving unobstructed sight from the cliff's side and possibly misleading images on the attacker's side.

Emille watched as the field distorted and twisted as it flipped itself around, popping and crackling sounds coming from it. "Ha!", Marius exclaimed gleefully, "Whatever amateur set this up failed to account for meddling of the field's representation in co-terminous metaplanes! Emille resisted the urge to roll her eyes; he was spouting the magic jargon again. Thank the gods pyromancy was conceptually straightforward, at least by magic standards.

She took a deep breath and began to focus on the air in front of her. She started small, igniting the smallest parts of the air first and working her way out. Numerous tiny sparks sprang into existence, forming into a great conflagration in a matter of moments. With a quick flick of her wrist, she sent the blaze rolling through the field. The thing(s) on the other side wouldn't see it coming until it was too late.

Ignite [3d6]:7to send a rolling pillar of flame at the mystery foes. As the quenching field is attuned to vision, flame will pass through with little problem.

paper bag with a face fucked around with this message at Jul 4, 2017 around 12:02

...they shall march out of my laboratory and sweep away every adversary, every creed, every nation, until the very planet is in the loving grip of the Pax Bisonica. And then peace will reign, and the world, and all humanity, shall bow to me in humble gratitude...

This is what Cue would have communicated, if it still were capable. Yet it wasn't. This caused it some level of irritation, but at least its core abilities hadn't been disrupted. Which meant, of course, that it was perfectly capable of taking CROWN as well as EGG. Oh how they loved CROWN, its shape and size perfect for Cue. How they would whine and cry and gnash their teeth when it took CROWN and flew around with it on, impossible to reach.

Hilarious!

Telekinesis to steal CROWN and put it on Cue's self: 3d6= 13Defend with Telekinesis by being too fast and erratic: 3d6= 13

[Lady of the Dungeon]Clarification: Apparently I forgot to mention an important detail about EGG. It's size. Think ostrich, not chicken.
Additionally, as of the end of the previous turn EGG is in Cues possession, whereas Enkoridii is in possession of Crown.

Swedish Thaumocracy fucked around with this message at Jul 3, 2017 around 14:23

Scepter the Specter hove above the king. " As you wish, my lord!" He said as the arrows went through his incorporaral ghost body, and he use it as an advantage to follow the trail of arrows back to the attacker and chose their heads off!

The Master's Mark:4 to reverse the the field's polarity, giving unobstructed sight from the cliff's side and misleading images on the attacker's side.

Emille watched as the field distorted and twisted as it flipped itself around, popping and crackling sounds coming from it. "Ha!", Marius exclaimed gleefully, "Whatever amateur set this up failed to account for meddling of the field's representation in co-terminous metaplanes! Emille resisted the urge to roll her eyes; he was spouting the magic jargon again. Thank the gods pyromancy was conceptually straightforward, at least by magic standards.

My ruling is thus; With a successful Talent Activation you may temporarily borrow AND use one of Marius's skills or powers (effectively giving you three actions that turn, the Talent, the Free Skill/Power, and your normal secondary action). The question is, what are Marius's skills and powers? His Talent is obviously piggybacking onto your shadow - you do not have access to it.

Pippin could barely believe the size of the number written on (and in the general vicinity of) the paper. Either this Lady had stepped on quite a few toes to get this many complaints, or the ticket was some joke she was playing on him. He doubted the latter applied, considering the tone of her voice was not one of mirth or joculence. Harumph. Stiff upper lip; he'd have to queue up and wait his turn, then. That was life in a civilized world for you.

He was about to sit down comfortably on the beach, when he noticed something unusual happening to the goblin crowd. He had ignored most of the other people present on the beach up until now, but when they came under attack by an unseen force he could not sit back and do nothing. That would be the height of rudeness.

"Everyone, stand back!" Pippin yelled and he reached for the spice rack on his back, procuring a little bottle filled with some odd liquid. "This stuff stains clothes harder than tea stains teeth!" With a wild swing, he splashed the liquid in the general direction of the unseen attackers in the hope of making them visible. Colourful splashes of food colouring stained everything it touched.

He then deftly returned the bottle to its position on the rack and gathered his hands above his head. Pippin spoke an odd incantation and a strange multi-coloured portal opened up above his head. From it materialized an ethereal rolling pin, at least 20 foot tall and crackling with strange energies. He swung the implement wildly at any moving blothes of colour with great fury, yelling helpful words of encouragement at the random strangers who had suddenly become allies.

"Hit 'em where it hurts! If it's colourful and it moves, 'it it hard!"

Spicery (spread food colouring everywhere in the hope that it will make the invisible assassin visible): 2d6=8Conjure cooking utensil (flatten the opponent with a 20 foot ethereal rolling pin): 4d6=20

My ruling is thus; With a successful Talent Activation you may temporarily borrow AND use one of Marius's skills or powers (effectively giving you three actions that turn, the Talent, the Free Skill/Power, and your normal secondary action). The question is, what are Marius's skills and powers? His Talent is obviously piggybacking onto your shadow - you do not have access to it.

How many 'points' does he have to work with? I assume 12d6, same as everyone else?

Span took his time walking along the beach. There were things at play here that he could not countenance, and he wanted to ensure the continuity of his Core Units. Worse still, his SRS had malfunctioned - he remained a lumpen shape of clay! He rippled with laughter and set off down the beach. Traps and assailants assaulted the others, but it mattered not - he was strong and tough, and that selfsame clay would take the slings and arrows of fate. Defend - Soft Body [2d6] = 8
As gobbets of him shivered off under their blows, they rose up and struck out at those who would attack him.Attack - Clay Torrent [2d6] = 5
What a curious place he had discovered.

How many 'points' does he have to work with? I assume 12d6, same as everyone else?

Indeed! Normal deepdelver rules apply.
Edit: actually, how about this? Marius can have a total of fourteen ranks in his skills and powers, either getting a fourth skill or power at rank 2 or buffing one of the six starting abilities, whatever those may be. In return however, you must give him a Wound. Preferably something that adds some flavour to the character, like say a [Fondness for Wine]. Wounds don't always activate, and as Marius can only ever be active once per floor the chances of it triggering is relatively low, but I feel this might better represent an old mentor figure!

Swedish Thaumocracy fucked around with this message at Jul 4, 2017 around 07:08

Edit: actually, how about this? Marius can have a total of fourteen ranks in his skills and powers, either getting a fourth skill or power at rank 2 or buffing one of the six starting abilities, whatever those may be. In return however, you must give him a Wound. Preferably something that adds some flavour to the character, like say a [Fondness for Wine]. Wounds don't always activate, and as Marius can only ever be active once per floor the chances of it triggering is relatively low, but I feel this might better represent an old mentor figure!

I think I'll do this.

Marius Addison

Skills[5d6] Noctomancy: A notoriously difficult and abstract art which harnesses and shapes the energies of the Shadow Plane, which is both coterminous and not with that of reality. Though I am the undisputed master of this art, I do not teach it to others often as it is taboo and requires a special type of mind to truly excel in. [1d6]Sage Advice: I have lived a very long time, too long. You do not get to be my age without knowing how to dispense this.[1d6]The Mark: Through my link with my pupil, I can transfer magical power or vitality. I hope the latter is not required, I only have so much to go around these days.

Powers[3d6]Noctomantic Transposition: I have located a particularly nasty patch of shadowstuff in this dungeon's Shadow Plane, both freezing cold and with draining properties. All I have to do is bring it into the Real.[2d6]Summon Shadow Demon: Demon is actually a misnomer, given due to their frightful appearance and viciousness. A firm hand is required to control them.[2d6]Malignant Shaping: One of the cardinal tenants of noctomancy is Like Affects Like. By changing something similar, such as its representation in the Shadow Plane, to a physical object, I can make subtle changes to the object itself. With this, I can sabotage my pupil's foes, if she requires it.

WoundToo Goddamn Old: I will make a confession. I am not a mortal man. However, I discovered a long time ago that even my immortality has limits. Every eon that passes, I unceasingly grow older and older, yet my flesh refuses to die. My blood dried up ages ago, yet my flesh refuses to die. My organs are withered husks, only superficially functioning, yet my flesh refuses to die. I worry that it is only a matter of time until my mind starts to go. What will happen then? Without my will driving it will my body finally crumble away? Or will I be trapped in an undying prison? I...don't like to think about this.

How is this? I've gone back and edited Marius's roll into my previous post.

paper bag with a face fucked around with this message at Sep 2, 2017 around 18:19

[Goblin One Battalion]
One by one the goblins imploded in on themselves, frantically trying to find just the right goblin for the job only to find that it had been one of the first casualties.
Panic ensues, with the battalion eventually balling up into a very unruly tortuga formation, makeshift weapons waving every which way hoping the invisible army would leave them alone.

---

[Pippin Bogleech]
Producing his bottle of liquid stainer, a mighty throw in the general direction of combat was hopefully all it would take to reveal their foe.

For the briefest of moments, Pippin saw the vauge outline of many tiny bipeds, no more than half his size, as a negative impression on the now extremely colourful beach.
Wwherever the liquid had hit, it had also vanished as whatever was keeping his foe invisible apparently extended to anything they touched. In the confusion of meleé it would not take long until they had all scattered from the spot of his brief sighting.
Well, the best way to solve that he figured was to hit everything at once. And the best way to do that was with a giant rolling pin.

The impromptu greatclub smashed a crater into the beach, but left no impression in Pippins mind that it had actually hit anything of importance.

*[I was unsure how to rule this at first, since apparently I had forgotten all about Skill vs Skill interactions in the rules post! Woops! Anyway, for this floor at least the ruling will be thus;
When you encounter an active skill that you want to disable (say someone being invisible), you roll your skill against theirs as per usual. If you fail to beat the enemies roll, you do not accomplish anything.
If you beat their roll with anything less than a full rank; you have only a partial success, gaining some information or minor benefit but little else. One rank of success means you disable the effect.
However, if you manage to beat their entire Skill Dicepool in the targeted skill, you trigger an Overskill, disabling the effect and letting you either disable the skill entirely for a turn or introducing your foe to a [Shame] – a skill wound.]

---

Emille/Marius
Marius, wherever he was, smiled wickedly to himself. He hadn't had a chance to practice real Noctomancy in years and during combat no less! Oh, sure, he used it for everyday affairs and even taught it to those few, ever so few, that he found worthy, but even the most theoretical of lessons was as naught compared to actively engaging with the plane of shadows through a shadow that you in turn accessed from another plane entirely! Oh he could spend years in here, decades even, if only his ever aging body would let him.

A vast tower of Magitek, the likes of which Marius had only read about in the ancient histories of even more ancient, forgotten empires loomed Wyrdly onto the world of Shadows. Seemingly more real in this strange realm than anything else he had encounterd before.
Well, even if he didn't understand the Magitek itself, his long life had taught him enough underlying principles to know just where to 'twist' to get its signals scrambled.

---

Emille

"aaand.. done!" came Marius's voice over their telepathic link. Not that she needed telling, face to face as she was with the strange creatures her Master had made visible.

They looked very much like Kobolds, except made entirely out of metal. Or no, that was silly. Obviously it was just Kobolds wearing metal armour, covering every inch of their bodies.
Strange lights adorned their outfits, sparking now in obvious defiance to their Safe Operating Procedures, presumably an artifact of the busted Quenching Transmitter.

Speaking of the Quenching Transmitter, the Magitek Tower loomed over Emille in 'reality' as it did her Master in shadows, now clearly visible and offering ample hiding place to a multitude of the nasty bow wielding pests.
At least whoever had supplied them with their armour had neglected to give them proper weapons, yet another thing to be eternally thankful for. But ah, she was forgetting herself again. With the enemy in clear sight, all she had to do was 'fire' and her troubles would be no more.

Wait, how did that spell work again? All her focus had gone to maintaining the link with Marius long enough for him to work his magic (heh) and so now, faced with her true opposition, she fumbled the incantation and blew nothing but smoke in their general direction.

---

Cue

Everyone wanted CROWN, the headpiece of leadership that was already the perfect size and shape to fit Cue like a hand in a glove, if he still had hands. All he had was an Eightball, however, but the CROWN would fit it perfectly anyway on account of being made to fit an EGG.

Telekenesis (13) vs Energy Manipulation (5) = Success!

Summoning all of its mischevious thaumaturgic energies, Cue deftly snatched the CROWN from the vortex of gravitic eddies that the Enkoridii had been holding it in.
The motes did not seem overly concerned at this development, busy as they were being poked to death by a score of unruly Magitek Kobolds that suddenly appeared, stained in all the colours of the rainbow around them.

Placing the crown upon his top-half, he could feel an unknown power surging through him. He felt bold, brave and ready for anything. He felt wise and powerful, like he could lead nations! Yes! Nations of lizard people preferably.
Yes, let the other bipeds and tripeds and nopeds and mopeds rot in mass graves, for all he cared! All hail the new King, King Cue!

[Cue gains an item! The Kobold Crown of Kings, or possible the Crown of Kobold Kings? Or is it the King of Cobold Crowns? Who knows, but it is yours.
You can't really tell what it does, persay, aside from make you the King of Kobolds of course, but such things will probably become apparent in time.]

--

King Norman

King Norman was furious. Almost naked, but furoious. At least the enemy was visible, and that was all he needed to give his glorious, kingly command.

Sceptre the Spectre rose like the ghost he was from the gwave he never had the luxury of resting eternally in, his sword aflame with ghost-light and flew over the assembled horde of enemy warriors, smithing them righteously in the name of the King.
The ethereal blade cut through the sensetive electromagic suits like a dragon through a china shop, skewering the poor Kobolds inside utterly. A dozen stained and beaten corpses now littered the battlefield, joining the goblin knights in an all you can eat buffet of disposable minions.
Still, many dozens more advanced upon those gathered.

[You killed a bunch of them but there are still a lot of them to go around!]

--

Emille

The Magitek Kobolds inhabiting the tower noticed at once they were under attack, and so retaliated in full.

A veritable storm of sharp, pointy things fell every which way around her, and though she dodged most of them she simply could not keep dodging forever, lest she fall of the cliff to her demise.
Thinking quickly, she dislodged her rucksack mid-combat-roll, threw it into the air in front of her and blasted it with her Arquebus, detonating a myriad of useful alchemies and lantern oil and filling the air with endless frays of her former, woefully unused coil of rope in a last ditch effort to save herself from death.

[Emille takes 1 rank of damage, destroying her Adventuring Gear in the process! Woe is her!]

---

The Enkoridii

The Motes were in danger, Collective had been harmed! Such was unthinkable, and yet it had occured. The Enkoridii would have to adapt to the local context in order to survive, and thus spread like a puddle of goblins, thinning out to cover as much of the beach as possible.
When the Enemy suddenly became visible, retaliating became so much simpler. Heeding the Call of the King, they lashed out with all manner of physical hijinks, erupting the beach with microwormholes and igniting the air by lensing the ambient light levels just so.

Another dozen Magitek Kobolds fell to the strange geometries and hazardous radiation zones that suddenly turned the once peaceful beach into a a particularly deadly workshop on Applied Topomancy.
Still dozens more came at them, with their dinky half rusted daggers simply aching for a good fight.

---

Goblin One Battalion

Still in their formation, the Goblins took the brunt of the assault head on, using the most useless goblins as fodder that the important once may live.

It worked surprisingly well, for now that the enemy were visible they were oh so much easier to defend against. Kobold daggers clashed with goblin anythings, and the two groups came to a stalemate, neither one gaining or losing any round.

---

King Norman

The King, busy with ordering his Knights around, did either not notice nor care when the Enemy at the Gates became the Enemy right in front of him.

And why wouldn't it be? The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune were nothing compared to the sciences of his people, and no matter what fancy magitek the Kobold masses brought to their showdown, the fact remained that their dinky swords could do nothing against his incredible bulk.

But neither could Spandreloctalos put a dent in their number, and so the fight continued.

--

Everyone
The beach was a bloodbath of goblins and kobolds, kings, knights and motes of energy. The Deepdelvers found themselves overwhelmed by tiny lizards clad in armour crafted by the most advanced techno-wizards of any age, and still the mystery remind: What off EGG, what part did it have to play in all of this? Where was the Psychic Entity that had assaulted Cue? And what had the Lady planned for them, here, at the very first floor of the Dungeon?

[As you can sort of tell from the previous sequence, Minion Hordes work slightly differently from Deepdelvers. Rules-wise, they are effectively one massive entity with a link-chain of dice pools that slowly decreases in a set pattern the more damage you do to it. In this case, For every 2d6 ranks of Magitek Armour the Deepdelvers overcome, one 2d6 Pointy Thing attack is also lost from the collective. When no more attacks (and in turn, armour) remains, the Magitek Kobolds will be defeated. You will also note that they had a buff to their armour at the beginning of the turn, one that was later lost. This is due to the fact that Marius managed to defeat the Invisibility Field, which was granting them a 2d6 buff and also blocking them (and the traps) from view. Had Marius succeeded with an Overskill, the buff might have instead been transferred over to you as per his original plan. Alas, it was not to be.]

Ah, there they are. Such lovely machines they had wrapped around themselves. How he wanted their delicate mechanisms to be part of his own... but alas, it was not to be. Not in this place, not in this time. He made no particular effort to avoid their blows, focusing instead on the weapons dropped by the fallen. He pointed a clay fist at one of them, sighting along the lines of his SDCU and firing a tiny sliver of himself. The blob of clay and metal quickly infiltrated a fallen blade, within moments converting it into a Low Autogolem. The Blade, for that was its name, pinged Span with a request, which Span dutifully supplied: Kill. Blade slithered on a clay belly and kicked off the sand with a cross-guard bent into insectile legs, desiring nothing more than the parting of flesh. Attack - Inhabit [2d6] = 7
It struck and landed, tumbling across the sand. And again!Attack - Inhabit [2d6] = 2
But, ah, it was a foolish thing. It would learn or it would die, Span supposed, like all things.

Long a primal rival of goblin-kind, the sight of the kobolds drives the entire batallion into a murderous rage! How DARE they use such sneaky and underhanded tactics such as invisibility... Before they could do so to them!? And where did they get all that shiny armor!? This would not stand. Not for long, anyways.

Rolling Indeterminate Number of Lives to attack, as the goblins aren't putting even a slight effort into tactics and are resorting to pure crushing force = 10 + Knighthood = 6(I dunno if it's still valid to use the command the king gave last turn this turn, in case it isn't just ignore the Knighthood bonus)

At the same time as they ran forward to crush their rivals, some of the more enterprising goblins realized they could make a sweet buck selling that nice shiny armor to other goblins in the stack, so they focused on stripping the corpses left behind as the intial rage wave passes over the kobolds.

Rolling Be Everywhere to have a secondary set of goblins try to loot what they can off the kobold bodies = 1

They were, shall we say, less than successful at prying off magitech armor off their fallen foes.

Infinity Gaia fucked around with this message at Jul 5, 2017 around 04:21

These armored kobolds weren't going down easily. Why weren't they? If you ever find yourself the opportunity to ask a furious orc such a question, don't. They'll take poorly to it and may shift their attention somewhere else. To you, for instance. But if you could, the answer would probably be 'cuz I'm not furious enough!'.

Though he was wildly swinging his weapon on the battlefield, grunting with every swing, he was showing remarkable restraint for an orc. Probably the result of years of tempering his attitude over a hot kitchen stove. What he needed was to get angrier. He reached for a little tin he carried around on the spicerack on his back, and dropped a little pinch of the hot pepper powder in his airways. The burning sensation quickly kindled a nearly forgotten instinct, and he returned to swinging his weapon while screaming incomprehensibly.

That which had attacked the collective was now identified, with the quantum superposition biped vibrating the local medium with 'Kobolds'. With their displacement clear, the dispersed collective sought out vents, intakes, weapon barrels or exhaust nozzles, points of ingress or egress which rendered a lack of visual acuity moot. With a way inside, any way inside, The Enkoridii could then set about doing horrible things to the suits and their occupants from within.

Setting 3d6 Incorporeality to defend itself again, the swarm is still dispersed and dodging.9

2d6 Like Fighting Thin Air as the thin air gets in and starts fighting, trying to get past the armor and fry, freeze, distort, fold, spindle and mutilate these things from the inside.10